Teens create app to tackle mental health stigma

The team of six who came up with the idea for Mindful Mondays are: Sophie Hodgkinson, Anneliese Costain, Tilly Hyatt, Lucie Woodworth, Paris Bell and Lydia Booth

A group of students are having an app developed to help break down the barriers around mental health for young people.

It comes after the teenagers, from Blythe Bridge High School in the Staffordshire Moorlands, won a competition put on by suicide prevention charity the Oli Leigh Trust.

Their app, Mindful Mondays, hopes to break down the barriers that young people face around their mental health.

Sophie Hodgkinson, who is 15 and one of the female students behind the idea, said: "A lot of people struggle with it silently and don't feel like it's ok to talk about it. There's a lot of negative stigma around it."

Tilly Hyatt, also in the team of six, felt it was better the idea came from young people as adults might not fully understand the pressures facing teenagers.

She said: "We know what causes the stress and how to help it."

The app hopes to offer a safe space for students to talk anonymously about their mental health, while also giving them challenges to help improve it.

"It will build towards having the positive foundation, so people can be happier, focus better in school and help in small increments to have better mental health in the future," said Anneliese Costain, another member of the team.

Kristopher Knight teaches at the school and helped bring the Oli Leigh Trust project to the school as part of the PSHE curriculum

Kristopher Knight teaches science at the school and feels issues with mental health are one of the biggest problems facing schools.

He said: "We are seeing students not attending lessons and a lot of this is about a lack of provisions in and out of schools, because of external factors such as funding."

"We are not professionals [when it comes to mental health], we are there to support students but our main priority is being in the classroom to teach them," he added.

Asked about what he thought of the idea the girls had come up, with Mr Knight said he was proud of what they had achieved.

"Any support we can throw out to our students, and any small things they can do themselves or talk to parents about can only be a positive thing," he added.

"I couldn't think of anything better to champion than young people's mental health."